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Back on his feet

Gerald Miller BS ’65 and his wife Ileana, weren’t planning on making the trip from Florida to Ada for Homecoming this year. Yet, there he was crossing the finish line on Saturday morning at the 11th Annual Stefanie Spielman Walk/Run for Breast Cancer Awareness.

“This was spur of the moment thing,” said Miller. “See, I heard this commercial on the radio about cancer survivors and I thought, ‘Uh, oh. That’s what I am now.’”

This summer, the 69-year-old Miller was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. He had surgery in July to remove his prostate, and he says he is just now getting his strength back.

Miller’s diagnosis came as a complete shock. Only after his urologist noticed something abnormal about his blood test, did he undergo further testing which revealed the cancer. According to Miller, he had displayed no symptoms whatsoever.

“It’s tough because I feel like I’m a healthy person, and I don’t have time for medicine and all of these things that you just have to do,” he said. “Man, old age just tears you up.”

Miller has always been a runner. He was a member of the cross-country team at Northern, and by his count has run 125 marathons in his life. The 2.5 miles Miller ran around the Green Monster on Saturday are a miniscule percentage of the more than 3,200 miles has run, but perhaps none were more meaningful.

In addition to the run, the Millers were looking forward to taking in some of the other Homecoming activities. There were especially excited about visiting the new engineering building, having graduated with a degree in electrical engineering.